Dawn of the ReDead
by Lisilgirl
Summary: The living dead walk! Can Link survive "R"-Day with only a handful of rupees, three bottles of potion, and a bomb? Happy Halloween!


_A/N: This is a small October special for all you zombie fans. __Dawn of the Dead, Zombieland, the Crazies__... I know I'm one! __I want to thank Zeldapedia (dot) com for several of the quotes, and intriguing information on ReDeads and where they might have come from. _

_For the map, it's probably not the Under the Well you were hoping for. Maybe the inside has changed since he was a kid...? __Some facts are tweaked, for the effect. XD_

_Disclaimer: The franchise of _Legend of Zelda_ does not belong to me. The ideas presented here are for entertainment use only._

**Warnings: None. **

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_XXX_

Dawn of the ReDead

_XXX_

Link had always thought the Bottom of the Well was disturbing.

It was probably that the high-pitched, keening screams made his neck hairs stand on end. The sewer water squelching in his boots didn't help his mood a whole lot either. And the walls that weren't really there always threw him for a loop. A rat scurried across the floor. The walls were coated with moist guck. The stench of fear and death was sinking into his skin. Link blinked, then decided he would forget just how terrible a place he was in.

"Link?" Navi's timid voice came, clearly disgusted but unwilling to show it, "Why are we here, when there are probably more ReDeads here than up there?"

Question number thirty three. His _ever-so dedicated_ fairy had been hinting that she hated this place. Her questions were slowly becoming a background noise against his pounding heart and skittish eyes. After all, he'd had to use a bomb to blow the crawl space apart so he could get in. With a noise like that...

"Have you ever wondered where ReDeads come from?" He peeked around a corner, narrowing one eye. The murky corridor was deserted, except for cobwebs in the top. He was calm. "My theory," he explained, stepping over a grate of poisonous looking water, "is that once I killed Ganon, the sudden influx of ReDeads came from this place."

Navi settled into his green cap, tiny fingers gripping the threads. "Actually, ReDeads might possibly be the bodies of Hylians reawakened by the dark magic of Ganondorf -"

Link's mind slowly tuned out the ball of light. Where did she get these ideas from?

"-'but none were as horrible as the ReDead. These skeletal creatures froze people who strayed too close, then they sucked the life from the unfortunate victims'. We need to be careful here."

_Tell me something I don't know_, Link snorted to himself. He rolled his eyes.

A hand suddenly shot out from behind a door, clenching his throat tight. Navi bolted. Link stiffened as a blank face lowered to his, shrieking like a banshee. Rotted flesh burned in his nostrils like a piece of meat left unattended for weeks. The holes were peering straight down into his soul, and the infernal noise was breaking down his mind. It was stuttering, infuriating, terrifying, mad, wild, excited, insane-!

For a split second, it stopped.

His hand twitched. Unsheathing his sword, he rammed it into the ReDead's chest. The blistering grip around his throat retreated like a wisp, but the feeling was still there. Link cut the thing in half.

Navi flew to his aid. Quietly, she landed on his shoulderr. "You will be fine. Just take a big breath, there you go, in and out..."

He was quiet. With a wry grin, he continued on into the corridor, eyes darting from side to side. After that, he didn't want to go any further.

"What do you have to kill them with?" Navi asked suddenly.

Question thirty four. Without thinking, he cracked a grin. He ruffled around in his wallet; the depths never ceased to amaze him. But there wasn't much in there right now. "A bomb, three bottles of potion, and twenty four rupees."

"...twenty four rupees?"

Link shrugged. "I just have to find the source of the ReDead infestation and blow it up."

"I don't think it works that way." Navi was quietly seething, "Are you going to save everybody above in Kakariko Village?"

The stench was overpowering the further along the corridor he went. His nerves were on edge now, and he was prepared to go into a horde of ReDeads. Navi's voice continued to become worried chatter that he just didn't listen to. Up ahead, a stone block with blood stains was pushed to the side of a hole. He frowned. It looked like it had been pried out from out here, despite grievous injuries. The smell was emanating from the crawl space.

_Only one way to stop it..._

Grunting, Link pulled the block from the lip, jerking it into the hole. Switching sides, he rammed it into the hole, hearing the walls click. Dissatisfied, he pulled the Megaton Hammer from his Giant's Wallet, smashing the edges of both the brick and the wall until they were rubble.

Pondering this situation, he dusted off his hands and returned the hammer. Could there be more of these holes? It was worth it to check.

He vaguely remembered Impa giving him a map. Whistling the shadow temple's theme quietly, he pulled the thick vellum from his map, noticing the marks and ticks of past adventures. There were a small pictures depicting where he'd found treasure chests, enemies, and rupees. He studied it.

There! It looked like there were four of these 'ventilation?' ducts. He screwed up his face; his child's handwriting sucked. Well, he had a compass, so he'd go on. And he had an idea to permanently stop this ReDead family reunion.

"Oooooh! So you're going to-"

"Yes, Navi. I need some time to think, so can you please be quiet?"

The blessed silence was a relief. It wasn't that he didn't like the fairy, it was just that she had a bunch of wise and not-so-stupid things to do. He didn't want to hear them if he was going to try to blow this place to the realm of the goddesses.

_XXX_

Three hours later, Link had not been attacked, and had blocked off two more holes.

The second one had taken longer than he had thought. The Hammer had broken the pieces of the block completely, leaving a hole for the creatures to get out of. Since this would not do, Link had to scavenge around, coming up with a handful of sludge and half a skeleton. Eventually, the situation improved when Navi informed him that there was a pile of invisible bricks right next to the wall.

The third hole was easy; this time he tapped the edges with the Hammer again, then smashed it in one hollow thud. The entire thing fell in with a rumble that shook his bones.

"That looks great," Navi said, watching him stare at his work, "Now, can we continue on? I assume you have a master plan."

He gave an affirmative nod, and swung the Hammer back into his Giant Wallet. His hand almost pulled the bomb switch. Sighing that it was still there, he said, "Come on, Navi."

The inked map in his hand was worn and mucky; he'd dropped it once or twice in the sludge. There were strange pieces of something on it, and he preferred not to think about it. Frowning, he began studying it closely. He had chosen to leave that south hole open because it was the closest to the ladder leading back to the daylights. Only around a corner and through an imaginary floor, and he was home free.

A shiver went down his back as he approached the last hole. It was surrounded by bricks that had mold and lichen growing from the mortar. He was probably the only living person to come down here for more than fifty years. It was seriously creeping him out.

Gingerly, he ducked through the hole.

The reek of death was overpowering. It was like stepping into a sauna filled with rotting corpses. There wasn't any light, but surprisingly, he could see a few feet in front of him. Another rat scurried across in front of him. A blue bubble of light vanished like a shot; Navi seemed frightened of the light she gave off and hid in the hair behind his neck. After Link had placed a slab of rock across the dark entrance, all the light was shut out. The torches he'd lit were hidden, and there was no way to find an others here in the dark. He could feel the destruction in the air.

He had entered into a bowl-shaped room. There were jagged cracks from water leaking down the walls. It was putrid and disgusting. Link knew he could make this plan work. With a word to Navi about watching for ReDeads, he went to the water.

Hastily, he uncorked a bottle of potion, slipping it into the water. It combined quickly, adding a sheen of slick, very combustible liquid. He grinned.

"Link..." Navi whispered, shuddering next to his neck.

Jerking up, he could see lumbering shapes coming in from the dark. There weren't very many, perhaps two or three, but the nerve-grating screams were starting to build. Link cursed and pulled the potion bottles from his pack.

The corks were stuck.

He tugged the wood and hastily glanced up. The figures hadn't gotten any closer, but the numbers had multiplied. He saw there were five in front of his escape. Ten more had appeared from another catacomb, figures falling apart in the dim light. All the ghost stories the Kokiri had whispered at night seemed real now. His mind began racing.

There! He popped off one cork and pushed it into the pool of muck. One last one...

A shriek came from behind him, and he shook his head, trying to keep it from entering his brain. It didn't work. His body stiffened, and while his mind railed against the control, the ReDeads began creeping toward him.

Why did he do this? It had seemed so easy in his head.

The paralysis wore off. Slowly, Link's fingertips slipped the final cap off and dropped the bottle. He watched with satisfaction as it fell sideways into the pool...

Then soft hands were pulling him to his feet and the shrieking was coming back tenfold. Link tried to struggle, but it felt like his soul was being sucked out. Pain, unlike anything he'd ever felt was making his nerves scream.

Navi suddenly flew in between the ReDead's gaze at his eyes, drawing the attention to her. There was a shriek as she fell to the floor, but Link had no time to stop. He whipped out a bomb, and knelt to grab his fairy.

The ReDead was returning its gaze. With one hard look at the sucking mouth above him, Link pulled the bomb's starter. The ReDead's head swung down, staring at the fire burning. The living man gave the bomb a good throw, watching as the object swirled dangerously above a group of ReDead's heads. Gracefully, it fell toward the potion-slicked surface of the water.

Fire exploded outward.

The world went black.

_XXX_

When the world exploded, everyone called it "R" Day. One day there had been blue skies and butterflies, and the next, the living dead were walking and eating people alive. Whole villages had been taken over by the slow-moving, flesh-eating, once-Hylian zombies. Classified as ReDeads, Kakariko Village had been the last safe haven of normalcy.

Until the Well began reeking of flesh.

Link had woken after seven years, completely astounded by the transformation of the Castletown. What else was there to do but wander around dodging evil all day long? And he thought his childhood had been bad.

_XXX_

When he came to, the stench of burnt flesh reached his nostrils. Rolling over, he vomited onto the floor, then stood, trying to access the danger.

The swampy room he'd been in was no more. The walls were seared black and the pools of black water on the floor had evaporated into nothingness with the heat from the bomb's explosion. The whole place felt better, despite the terrible sight in front of him.

"Link!"

Navi suddenly came flying out from a room. She saw him and launched into a tirade. "What were you thinking? This was the best decision you've ever made! None of the rooms have ReDeads in them; what else could be better than this?"

It took a few minutes for the words to sink in. "It worked?" is all he could groan.

When he had come up with the plan, it had seemed simple: slip the three potions into a body of water, tripling the potential flammability of general sewer water with small amounts of methane gas. Add a bomb to jump-start a fireball of exploding that flammability in a room full of half-rotted flesh and there would be no more infestation.

That's why he'd blocked off the exits: to trap most of the gases inside, and provide no holes for the ReDeads to get out of. The potion had been the catalyst. When things went up in smoke, it was a gorgeous display of on-the-spot engineering.

Navi was speechless.

Link was proud.

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End file.
